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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Constructor: Joel Fagliano

Relative difficulty: Easy (= I didn't need to cheat)

THEME: "Make the Change" — Theme answers are homophones of common phrases in which the prefix "de" substitutes for "the," making you sound like a Damon Runyon character when you say them aloud. Fun!(I don't get the title, though; someone please explain it in the comments.)

Word of the Day: TIRANE(18A: Capital city formerly behind the Iron Curtain)

Tirana (indefinite form in Albanian: Tiranë; in the regional sub-dialect of Gheg Albanian: Tirona) is the capital and the largest city of Albania. Modern Tirana was founded as an Ottoman town in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler from Mullet, although the area has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Tirana became Albania’s capital city in 1920 and has a population of 400,000, with metro area population of 763,634. The city is host to public institutions and private universities, and is the center of the political, economical, and cultural life of the country. (Wikipedia)

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Hello Puzzle People! I am PAM (11A: "The Office" woman), subbing for Rex, who is in New Zealand. I am in Seattle, where it is not currently raining. You should visit. We have a new Ferris wheel, plus King Tut, and even a YMCA (26A: Where it's fun to stay, in a 1978 hit).

Although it was easyish, I slogged through this puzzle. For every gimme likeAL QAEDA (95D: War on terror target) there was a stumper (at least to my sun-addled brain) like TSARS (86D: Old Russian line), which I wanted to be transportation-related. I don't blame Fagliano - the clues and fill were (mostly) fair - I just couldn't get on his wavelength. I enjoyed the theme answers, though, some of which made me LOL.

Theme answers:

22A: So happy you can't see straight? (BLINDED BY DELIGHT)

34A: Argument about a fork-tailed bird? (SWALLOW DEBATE)

50A: Circle above the airport? (PUT OFF DESCENT) - I prefer DESCENT OF A WOMAN, which would be fun to clue. (Hey lady, go write your own crossword! OK OK.)

70A: Making one's way down the corporate ladder? (GOING THROUGH DEMOTIONS)

77
comments:

Nicely done Pam! The video of Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul had me wondering WTF until I googled it. Apparently there was an Emmy skit involving the office cast? That's what I get for avoiding awards shows.

Anyway, this was my kinda Sun. Nothing fancy, mildly amusing puns, a paucity of junky fill and on the easy side. SW was my toughest section as I struggled with spelling ALQAEDA. Also tried Stork for SNIPE but the rest was smooth. Liked it.

Greetings Pam de Puzzler. I thought I figured out the title right away with the first theme BLINDED BY DELIGHT where "Make The Change" told me to change "The" to "DE".

But then along comes the second theme and not only is "The" changed to "DE", but an additional change occurs with "bait" becoming "BATE".

Then it goes back to changing only "The" to "DE" for the next three themes and ends with the last two themes again making another change in addition to the The-to-DE, "Nile" to "NIAL" and "Tale" to "TAIL".

That said, it was still a fun solve with lots of good stuff. Triple- stacked 7's and double-stacked 8's in the corners were nice. How can you not like INIMICAL, THE BABE, and GERONIMO? All in all, Mr. Fagliano was ON KEY.

First Witch: Round about the cauldron go; In the poison'd entrails throw. Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one Swelter'd venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

ALL: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch: Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Third Witch: Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, Witches' mummy, maw and gulf Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark, Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark, Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat, and slips of yew Silver'd in the moon's eclipse, Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, Finger of birth-strangled babe Ditch-deliver'd by a drab, Make the gruel thick and slab: Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, For the ingredients of our cauldron.

ALL: Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch: Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Julius Caesar > Act II, scene II

CAESAR: The cause is in my will: I will not come; That is enough to satisfy the senate. But for your private satisfaction, Because I love you, I will let you know:Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home: She dreamt to-night she saw my statua, Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, Did run pure blood: and many lusty Romans Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it: And these does she apply for warnings, and portents, And evils imminent; and on her knee Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.

chefwen meant 92D (overpaid athlete). Nice puzzle. I loved the puns. I thought it was medium difficulty. As Pam said, there were some easy clues and some headscratchers. I think the clue for 81D had the second blank in the wrong place (but I don't know the song). Some people (I'm one) think "cheating" is using reference materials (like Google or a thesaurus). They think the only resource should be the solver's brain and memory, but others disagree. However, there are no rules, and no one to enforce them but the solver's own values. Let's not open the debate again, but I think that's what Pam meant.

@glimmerglass -- there is only one blank in 81D, after "That's ___". Printing out the PDF version, the clue appeared to have two blanks and a misplaced comma, which greatly puzzled these aged eyes.A long-time lurker, I thank everyone in this community for providing a daily chunk of pleasure.Rrgards

54D EZIO Pinza is another talent unjustly relegated to the trash heap of crosswordese. He was Emile in the original Broadway production of South Pacific, in addition to being outstanding in opera. Here he is with Larry Hagman's mom, Mary Martin.

@NancyKav, in education now, since so much depends on test scores, many teachers are forced to spend most of the time teaching to the test, rather than teaching in more interesting and fruitful manners. Shout out to my husband, a high school teacher who does not teach to the test!

And, I loved this puzzle! Like others, it took forever to get started, due in part to the clever and sometimes really vague cluing. Once I got the theme, with 88A, it was pretty much a breeze, with much crunchiness as well. Dat was de best!

A discomfiting start to the week with no Across Lite (so no two page print out and it’s eye-strain city) then we get Joel Fagliano getting us to use Brooklynese as we get the DE for THE swap and shades of 1930’s cops and robbers movies, can’t help but think of “Cheez it de cops!”

Themewise, the twenty-one letter entry, GOINGTHROUGHDEMOTIONS makes a case for best of show, (and maybe it was Joel’s seed entry), but I’ll cast my vote for one of the shortest ones, SWALLOWDEBATE.

The fill was lively and sprinkled with 50 cent jobbies like INIMICAL, INCLINED and FEIGNED; techie specials, APPSTORE and ITGUY; sports teasers JOETORRE, THEBABE and GODEEP; a passel of irritating proper nouns, KYL, LELAND, DEVON and DELON and a few stragglers sure to have some dissenters like SPAZ, UGGS and HUAC.

Shades of yesterday’s WINKWINK, Joel independently chimes in with OKOK and ETCETC, leaving YADAYADA, OUIOUI, SISI and their ilk for another day. But, in the meantime there’s a May-December get together as Bernice Gordon’s recent “Lil Jon” clue segues into Joel’s rapper du jour, LILJON. (AND, YUP, it DID, no LIE).

@Jae - I'm pretty funny about how everything has to be just right. Working the puzzle in a pdf format meant the paper just. looked. wrong. None of my capital letters can touch any side, and it's really hard in the pdf version.

To answer your question about the Olympic rings, yes they represent the five populated continents: Africa, Asia, Australia (Oceania), Europe, and The Americas (taught in most of the world to be one continent, not North and South). What I don't know is whether each ring's color is assigned a specific continent; I don't think so. (A quick look at wikipedia states that prior to 1951 each continent was assigned a color, but it was never authenticated as part of the original intent and was removed from the Olympic Charter.)

Also I think the puzzle's title can be more accurately discerned by reading it as: Make "The" Change.

I don't usually enjoy puns, but this was a lot of fun, as was the write up. Thanks!

18A took me longer than it should have, even though Warsaw and Prague were clearly wrong, and even though I was just in TIRANE last year. I think of Albania as having been a separate little fiefdom run by Hoxha, rather than as part of the Soviet bloc.

@orangeblossomspecial - Thank you for transporting me from the de-lovely morning to the enchanted evening - wonderful! I was lucky enough to see the 1987 Lincoln Center revival of Anything Goes but just couldn't get to the 2008 South Pacific, alas.

frequently a pun requires a slight change in spelling outside the punned transformation-a pun is mostly a vocal phenomenom not a written one.It should not be considered a flaw.all in all a delightful puzzle,enough crunch, alittle bite but mostly S W E E T! thanks Joel and thankyou Pam!

Pete, you are awesome to see that subtext! There was something lurking in the back of my brain - not even a voice - suggesting something else was going on and you nailed it. Thank you! I really liked the puns and theme and liked that it was easy tho today I could have used a tough one since it's too hot to be outside. But, I just got BEQ's new puzzle book and will check LAT for Steinberg. Good day to all!

Blinded By the Light is a Bruce Springsteen song covered by Manfred Mann. Bruce wrote a lot of songs that others had hits with including Fire by the Pointer Sisters (originally written for Elvis Presley).

Really liked this puzzle, despite annoying "rap" clues, -boi?? and "Liljon"??? - but "German women" really bothered me. It is nitpicking, I guess, but the plural of Frau is Frauen, not Fraus. German plurals almost never end in "s". It is like saying "Italian men" is "uoms." I love puns, though, enjoyed these very much, so thanks a lot!

Did this yesterday. Liked the puns. DNF as never got 30D: -IA- which seems obvious now. Stilt before SNIPE, ACTII on The Scottish Play. Fixed it. I was thinking of "When shall we three meet again" which is actually the opening line in Act I. Ah,the joy of a bushel basket brain.

I'm off to the L A Times. Thanks @Acme. Thanks PAM for the pleasant write up.

@pam - nice to meet you! That cheerful writeup was a fine accompaniment to what I found to be a wonderful Sunday puzzle.

I rode the JF wavelength - from BLINDEDBYDELIGHT to LIVEDTOTELLDETAIL. Though i did have to make a guess on the final Naticky square - the L joining KYL and DELON (vaguely familiar joining never heard of).

@chefwen - I TOTALLY thought of @tobias d with 92D - even thinking it was possibly the first sports clue he might actually like!

@OISK: Or imagine someone writing "womans" instead of "women"! The only explanation I can think of is that "Frau" is now a foreign word in English and can therefore be subjected to the rules of English.

@Loren -- Oh, that routine. After reading your explanation I looked at my completed grid and vast majority of my block caps do not touch any lines and none cross any. This explains why I had thoughts of switching to a Bic .05mm while solving the PDF version yesterday.

I didn't even realize I had misspelled Al Qaeda (I spelled it Al Queda) until I saw the write up! However with my incorrect spelling, that left me with "UPS Store" for "modern marketplace!". That seemed ok to me!

Loved the puzzle. It seemed as though there were more contemporary references than usual. I think the process of youthification is well underway in NY Times puzzledom. I was just a tiny bit annoyed at the clue for "seen at." The use of "vicinity" in the clue through me off. I filled in 92d without thinking of anyone in particular. There are so many of them.

first the title - says make the Change - meaning we needed to make the word "the" change; second Africa the five rings of olympics refers to five continents involved in olympics (artic and antarctic are not involved -yet); bear cry (i thought animal like grizzly or black); canterbury can i thought tin (like word used in UK for a can) - i am with you on the duck and cover

Finished with a big smile. GOINGTHROUGHTHEMOTIONS right in the middle was worth finishing this puppy.@Anoa Bob: Thanks for bringing up "THE" "DE" changes. The NIAL and TAIL had me saying GRR YOU SNORT ONKEY. My only real hang-up was refusing to give up NILE. Great month for sports. Spain winning Euro 2012 (sorry @Ulrich - I thought of you) and just finished watching Wimbledon - what a game....Thank you Pam for the write-up Joel for the fun and ACME for the LA heads-up.

SWALLOWDEBATE was my first completed theme answer, then several moments of staring finally let me see DELILGHT.

Like this simple theme - reminds me of my first job, in the Bronx...Packages from our Connecticut warehouse used to arrive with "DA BRONX" scrawled in big black letters. I thought it was code, until I realized the snooty Nutmeggers were playfully dissing the Bronxites.

@OISK - I agree...FRAUEN is the plural, not FRAUS. @Ulrich - or "How are your childs doing in school?"

I thought of @Tobias at 92d AND 5A - has he sold his fabulous ADOBE abode yet?

I found this puzzle more on the "medium" side of difficulty and so was frustrated by the misleading cluing (i.e "fraus"/"seen at" etc)because it made me struggle for what would otherwise have been gimmes and I needed them! I was also VERY surprised to see "spaz" because in my world it is a derogatory term which makes fun of the handicapped but I have subsequently looked it up and it seems to be an acceptable synonym for klutz;dweeb etc. in the US yet is extremely offensive in the UK.Who knew....

This puzzle came straight from the lungs of Aeolus himself. Breezy. Only time I switched from auto pilot to brain on mode was for ___ off descent. Snipe wouldn't come for a while because I had lye for acid instead of LSD. Anyways, enjoyed the write up and happy Sunday to all those who chill in rexville.

Thanks, all! I had two friends in college who called their apartment "Chez Spaz" and convinced me it was not offensive. They are now both professors, for whatever that's worth. It still makes me cringe, though. Thanks for calling it out.

@Loren (and @Jae): Regarding PDFs and small squares. There's an easy solution to this. On both Windows and Mac, whatever you use to *view* a PDF almost certainly has some kind of zoom option. When you get the squares to appear as big as you need, on screen, then do a screen shot and print the screen shot. That should get you big-enough squares.

I agree that the answer FRAUS is just wrong.

I was about to agree on PIROGI, also, but it appears (per wikipedia) that PIROGI is the plural of the Russian Pirozhki, which *is* more like a turnover (at least it's a pie versus a dumpling, not sure about flakiness). The Polish not-a-turnover dumpling is spelled "pierogi." So, maybe this clue is (more) correct?

Struggled to get on Mr. Fagliano's wavelength as well...loved the pun switcheroo though once I got it. Ditto on pirogi being a snag. Was a good challenge, which is what you (I) want on a Sunday, which was otherwise spent catching up on season 4 of Breaking Bad, so was pleased to see Jesse pop up in the blog.

Great job on the write-up, PAM!

Oh, husband just asked if there was anything fun in the puzzle today and was groaning and underwhelmed by my reading of the puns. Neanderthal.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness. - Raymond Chandler

@OISK: Or imagine someone writing "womans" instead of "women"! The only explanation I can think of is that "Frau" is now a foreign word in English and can therefore be subjected to the rules of English.

...

Yes, it has, at least in some circles. Here is a perfectly vile definition (which includes "hausfraus" as well as "fraus"). There is even an example of "frau" as an adjective!

Solving in Syndication (but not in Seattle), I loved this (I know, I say that a lot but it's true). I don't know if it's because I am getting more confident or more careless, but I was just throwing in first guesses with abandon and most of them turned out to be right! Notable exception was the War on terror (a term that I hate, by the way) target, where taliban fit, too. Also had omen for prediliction until it malapopped into its rightful spot in the grid as Calpurnia's dream.

@Pete is definitely onto some deeper significance to the theme answers - for me it has kind of a "Groundhog Day" quality to it.

I know: again too late to be read. Well, that's because it took me all flipping day to get through it! I did, though, with no errors and no Googlation. This was very tough. Late-week cluing left few inroads, and it was a long while before I could place an entire theme answer--which would give me the "formula" for all of them.

It finally happened at QUEENOFDENIAL, but still my progress was slowed by cluing and spelling issues. There must be twenty ways to spell PIROGI; in the plural I always saw it as "pierogies" or "perogies," so I thought at first those filled turnovers must be something else.

After I filled in TEACHTODETEST via crosses, I did have to admit once hearing that expression, that one should make the material coincide with whatever happens to be on the final exam--a horrible practice, IMHO. If you teach the subject right, the student should pass any fair test.

The fill on such a big, broken-up puzzle was actually not bad at all. A clue for PEI that stays away from the ubiquitous I.M. was refreshing, as were GODEEP and what the QB might yell as he's ENACTING--er, I mean, passing the ball: GERONIMO!

OKOK, there was a little bit of less-than-stellar stuff: SEENAT, ODON, ETCETC; but not enough to pull down so many great entries. Favorite image: In "Amok Time," T'Pau scolds Stonn's interruption: "I can forgive such an outburst ONLYONCE."

Joel, you did not GO...THROUGHDEMOTIONS--and you are definitely not OVERPAID! Thumbs up!

@Spacecraft, I read your post, but nobody will read this Wednesday post of the Sunday puzzle. I took my time.

Pam from Seattle, great pinch-hitting for the Rex, and Joel, I loved your puzzle, taking little time to deduce your theme.

My main problem was trying to figure out the answer for 95D with 94D's clue. Does anybody else do this, too?

Has anyone else been on a SNIPE hunt?

@Ryan Hauck, how can the Olympic organizers consider North and South America as one continent. You can spit across the Isthmus of Panama but to my keen geographic eye there's one big mass of land where Europe/Asia sits. Just wondering.

Best pun of the XW was QUEENOFDENIAL. It made me think of the novel, Queen of the South, by Arturo Perez-Reverte, one of my favorite authors.

@SiS lol award of the day to @Pete for sussing out the real theme of the puzzle.